Uh-oh, dark streak is kicking into high gear.

I'd better think of something dark to write so that this can become the light and happy fanfic it was supposed to be :O

Although, my dark work has such intense plot, so I don't know if I want to change it or not.

I'm gonna stop talking now, because on dark chapters, every word I say can wind up being a spoiler.

"You've been looking kinda off since I woke up," Kogasa said, sounding pretty worried for her green-haired miko of a best friend. "Is something wrong?" The karakasa's usual purple umbrella had followed her into Eientei in her hands, and it had now followed her out the same way. It took up one of her hands, leaving the other free.

"I think so. Although, it's something extremely personal to myself and my family, so if you don't mind…"

"Say no more, friend. I won't poke and prod you about it." And like that, Kogasa dropped the topic. Then her gaze turned up to the clouds above the two. "Beautiful weather, isn't it?" The duo was now back en route to Former Hell so that Kogasa could get back to work and Sanae could enjoy her last day at the resort. Yes, tonight would be Sanae's third night at the resort, so tomorrow morning she would have to head home. Thinking about it made Kogasa kind of sad since the donations to a shrine were for the shrine and its residents, not vacations to Former Hell. That meant it would probably be quite some time before Sanae came down to the Komeiji Hot Springs Resort again, and that meant she'd be a pretty rare sight for the karakasa if she worked nearly as hard as she planned to in order to ensure a secured spot of employment. "It's kind of funny, that I only remember seeing the sun twice in my life. It was pretty cloudy when I went over to Eientei, so I couldn't really see it."

"I can't believe you just said that with a smile on your face…"

"Hey, it's good that I can always keep smiling, right? I need to keep my chin up if I'm gonna be a good attendant at the resort."

"Fair enough. Mind if we stop by the Moriya Shrine on the way back?"

"Sure."

Throughout the walk to the Moriya Shrine; scenes within Sanae's wild daydreams…

Sanae found herself standing above a deep hole in the ground. The phrase was six feet under, but she took the care to ensure that the hole was at least twice that deep, so nobody would find the contents unless they searched specifically there, and put plenty of effort into their digging. Behind the green-haired psychopath lied numerous bags, all of which were labeled as simply being things from school. It was true, at least…

Sanae started dragging the first bag toward the hole, resulting in muffled screams from inside. There was a live person inside; one of the many who were the biggest figures in her past of being bullied. This one was the closest thing to a mastermind there was; none other than Taro Kageyama, who Sanae remembered most vividly as a bully. He was cruel to all, but Sanae always got the worst of it, and his behavior to her bordered on sadistic many times. He was also the one responsible for that night, as the Hanakaze police force found out just days before Sanae left to Gensokyo. Therefore, she never got to see justice handed down. Therefore, in her unconscious mind, she would hand down her own imaginary justice, by throwing him into this hole first.

"Sanae," one of her classmates called out with sincere happiness. "Happy birthday!"

"…"

"Sanae?"

"Go away…" The usual look of dark gloom and doom covered her face. If one eats nothing but lemons for their entire life, how would they react upon eating candy? Sour flavors being taken in for one's whole life makes it difficult to understand what something sweet tastes like.

"Is something wrong?" This student wouldn't understand why Sanae acted the way she did. After all, he was a transfer student who just came in the other day.

"Leave her be," another classmate said quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Sanae isn't like other people. She's…I want to say a freak, but-"

SLAM! The person who dared say that word in Sanae's presence found themselves thrown onto the shiny floors of the school, followed by a stomp into their face. And another. And another…

"You really thought that?" Kogasa looked Sanae dead in the eyes with a look of surprise. "Oh, my…that's going to roughen things up for you a bit, isn't it? I was really rather surprised you believed the whole friendship act to begin with. You're just an outright freak. How could anybody be your friend, Sanae?"

"…"

Back to reality…

Grip.

"Hm? Sanae, is something wrong?"

"Kogasa…are you really my friend?"

"Huh? What kind of question is that?"

"I see…"

"Of course I'm your friend!" Kogasa, eyes alight with joy, looked right into Sanae's own. The karakasa could see why she asked. Behind Sanae's eyes lied so many dark feelings, that it was no wonder she couldn't really tell if something as light-hearted and joyous as their friendship was real or not. "And nothing, nothing will ever change that! Other humans may not have treated you so well, but we both have that problem, don't we? We can get over it together, and then we can be friends forever!"

"Humans die eventually…what would you do then?"

"When you die?" Kogasa had to think about that one for a moment. Sanae could be a little dark sometimes, but she seemed to be in full gloom right now. Something must have been seriously troubling her. "When you died, I'd march myself right up to Heaven; I know that's exactly where you'd end up. And then, we'd have our own little place, forever!"

"Is that so?"

"Hey look! It's the shrine!"

"…" Sanae rose her eyes to meet Kogasa's. Even though she was troubled like Sanae, Kogasa could keep up a bright and joyous personality, and always had that adorable ear-to-ear smile of hers that could melt any beating heart to complete mush. How come Sanae couldn't stay happy like that, no matter how hard she tried? Instead, she not only brought out that sad mood, but the things she said would usually cause it to spread to other people as well. "Kogasa…"

"Yeah? What's bugging you?"

"Don't ever leave me, okay?"

"Huh?" Next thing the karakasa knew, much to her own surprise, she found herself tightly gripped in Sanae's arms.

"You're the only real friend I've had. Family is family, and they're supposed to treat you well. Sometimes that leaves me wondering if, behind my back, they actually hate me. Everybody else either treated my horribly or was just indifferent to me even existing. Nobody ever brought me flowers when I was sick, but you did. Nobody else would ever say such reassuring things to me like you, and they'd even make me more depressed than I already was. Even on my own birthday, the only gift I got from anybody besides my family was extra bullying, but you went out of your way to make sure I had a happy birthday…" Comparing the misery of her past with the joys of her newfound friendship with Kogasa was such a drastic combination of happiness and sadness, of hate and gratitude. Just that clash of emotion drove Sanae to tears. "Thank you," the miko softly said. "Thank you so much."

"Hey now, it's nothing." It just felt right for Kogasa to return the embrace. "If you ever feel like life's driving you crazy, and you just can't handle yourself, before you ever do anything rash, come and see me, alright? I'll make sure to always leave a bit of my bed open for you. Or maybe you could come get a job of your own there!" The bright light of Kogasa's eyes intensified at the idea of her and Sanae working in the same place; living in the same place. "I could teach you everything I know about being an attendant, and you could be one of the best ones in the whole resort! Miss Satori says that only Orin does a better job than me, but how can I compete with her, really?"

Moriya Shrine…

"Sanae," the two resident goddesses said happily. "Welcome home!"

"O-Oh, hi…"

"Hmmm…" Suwako approached the team of Sanae and Kogasa, and looked them over carefully, not skipping a single detail. Even the eyes on top of her hat seemed to move…did they move just now? "I've gotta say, I can't believe you two get along as great as you do. I mean, after all those exterminations. There was that one just before you went to Makai, and there was also that one time on Halloween. Oh! Remember the one with the altar? That was lots of fun, that one~" Suwako disregarded the deathly glare Kanako gave her at the mention of an altar. "And then you'd talk about it, and how scared she was, and we'd all laugh and have a good time, and…"

"…"

"…I said too much, didn't I?"

"Kogasa," Sanae shouted after the karakasa sprinting away from the shrine as fast as her legs would take her. "Come back! Please!" She even forgot to grab her umbrella on the way out. Odds were that Kogasa couldn't hear her by now; she ran surprisingly fast if she set her mind to it. After all that. After Kogasa had her memory wiped away, and chose to keep it that way just so that she could be Sanae's friend. After dashing away from her job, taking sunflowers from Yuka Kazami so that she could bring them to Sanae, and staying there with her the entire night when she accidentally ate nuts. After Kogasa had even promised to be her friend forever. She ran off like the wind. Because of Suwako.

Gulp. Even if she was Sanae's ancestor, and a full-blown, honest-to-herself goddess, Suwako didn't like the situation she now saw herself in. The air around Sanae seemed to visibly leak despair and depression, almost being enough to take the perpetual smile right off of the frog goddess's face. Sanae had hit some pretty deep low points in the human world, but this one was worse than all of them. This made her mood after that night look like the bright demeanor Kogasa had shown for the brief moment she was here. "Sanae…I, I-I'm really, really sorry I said that…"

No fake-outs this time. That just happened.

I think I may end this fanfic soon. Also…

While it was probably overshadowed by Sanae's murderous side in her dream world, I'm surprised nobody mentioned the heterochromatic attendant in Kogasa's dream; the one with the red and green eyes. I was rather hoping somebody would throw out a wild guess that it was a sign of a Kogasa x Sanae pairing, since that was exactly what I had in mind.

Uh-oh, if I end this soon, and I've lost my drive for my other stuff…

This is bad, guys. Once this ends, I'll have nothing left to write! Quick, somebody start naming off cute but unlikely pairings, preferably avoiding the PC-98 era and Ten Desires